


Fear, cold like ice

by imaginaryinspiration



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Gen, Halloween, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Scary, Trauma, True Lab (Undertale), Undertale Pacifist Route, bad memories
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-31
Updated: 2020-10-31
Packaged: 2021-03-08 22:33:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,157
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27314122
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/imaginaryinspiration/pseuds/imaginaryinspiration
Summary: The True Lab. Maybe Frisk's not as ready for this as they thought they were...Suddenly mobility returned to their feet and they tried to gun it out of there, but it was too late. They couldn’t see in the near pitch-black darkness, but they could feel. Icy fingers felt like fire on their skin with a vice grip on their heart. A laugh, haunting, eerie, inhuman, in-monster. This was the Experiment! It’s white body melded together and it had 10 faces yet only one hole for a mouth simultaneously. Fear swallowed them whole.
Relationships: Chara & Frisk (Undertale) & Original Character(s)
Kudos: 11





	Fear, cold like ice

**Author's Note:**

> Here's a Halloween-y Undertale story! There's a couple curse words in here (I think like one fuck and that's mainly it.)

The elevator crashed down and finally hit solid ground with a jarring impact that knocked them over and nearly made their head explode. Their bones rattled and they couldn’t seem to find their breath. Dust clouded their vision and choked them, closing their throat in much the same way a panic attack might (and had, many times.)

They coughed and coughed, fighting against the suffocation and waving away the dust with trembling hands. Chara was screaming “What the _hell!_ Why did that stupid lizard—!” Colorful words a normal 12-year-old child should not be using were spat out their mouth with a ferocity that would’ve scared Frisk had that mouth belonged to anyone else. Frisk let them simmer for a moment before getting them back on track. “Maybe, well, I’m sure it was an accident. Alphys _wanted_ us to come down here. The elevator malfunctioning wasn’t anyone’s fault.” 

They sounded unsure.

“Let’s just go.”

After they tried to get out of the rubble and walk around only to see it was pitch black, Frisk could feel a tension in their jaw tightening where Chara was unintentionally taking a small portion of control. They felt their way through the dark, hands outstretched in front of them with the hope they could navigate. Eventually, they reached what felt like a…vending machine? Somehow, it disposed a snack to them even without power. Poptato Chisps? “What kinda off-brand bullshi-“

“Language. _Please,_ Chara.”

“Fine.”

Frisk stored the chisps in their magical phone storage, just like they did every morsel of food they scrounged up, always saving it for something more important, even when they needed healing so very badly. Old habits died hard.

At Chara’s gentle reminder, contrasting their foul mood just moments before, Frisk withdrew one of those glowing crystals they’d swiped from Waterfall, which provided only slightly more light than a nightlight. Still, better than nothing.

Now they could see more, and started to explore. As they passed the walls, screens with words dimly lit, casting a sickly green glow onto Frisk’s face. Lab entries. Out of order, so the two had to do some rearranging in their mind to put the pieces of the story together. Experiments. Unethical, if Chara thought about it. Experimenting on the souls of near-dead monsters. A shudder ran through Frisk’s frame, goosebumps appearing on their arms.

Walking further and trying to mask their alarmingly growing sense of unease and their muscles screaming at them to run away, they came across a note. About a key, and a shower…it was mostly illegible. The writing was panicked, so desperate it became chicken scratch. More lab entries. The monsters…melted…together? They started to make less sense as if the person writing them was losing their mind, driving themselves insane.

And then the central room, with that machine. It looked _so_ much like Flowey’s form when he was a god, when he stole the SOULs. Stole control of the timeline from them. Both Frisk and Chara wanted to break down and cry at the thought, the memory, of him killing them a million times in a million different torturous ways, savoring it, _enjoying it!_

Blinking back tears and fighting down a sob, they looked more. Determination extraction machine. How _horrible-!_

Frisk wandered down a hallway with a shower. Something was moving behind the curtain! Squinting their eyes shut, Frisk took a shaky breath in, and slowly let it out. They stilled their fears. They were _determined_ to follow the note. Frisk and Chara worked together to pick up Frisk’s heavy-as-lead feet keeping them rooted to the ground. One step at a time. They inched closer, bile rising in their throat. Finally reaching the curtain, they pulled it back to reveal…nothing? Nothing but a twinkling green key. Breathing a sigh of relief, Frisk ran as fast as their legs could take them away from that room. They wished they could run all the way out of this horrible place!

More lab entries. Better vessel for determination, one without a soul… A flower. From Asgore’s garden. _Oh no! Oh shit!_

A string of colorful curses exited Chara’s mouth, but Frisk didn’t chide them because _WHAT THE HELL!_ Oh freakily frick! _Flowey!_

They went to a room with golden flowers. Rows of them. This time, Frisk did throw up, a little bit. As they tried to run away, a sound made them freeze, feet stuck in ice. They looked back and dropped the crystal. A face…?

Suddenly mobility returned to their feet and they tried to gun it out of there, but it was too late. They couldn’t see in the near pitch black darkness, but they could feel. Icy fingers felt like fire on their skin with a vice grip on their heart. A laugh, haunting, eerie, inhuman, in- _monster._ This was the Experiment! It’s white body melded together and it had 10 faces yet only one hole for a mouth simultaneously. Fear swallowed them whole.

Worse, Frisk had the wind knocked out of them and stumbled. They felt…empty, alone. _Chara._ Chara was _gone._

With trembling limbs, shaking like a leaf, they summoned determination to stare the creature down like they had always. Papyrus. Undyne. Asgore. _Flowey._

The dog-like creature was absolutely terrifying and let out an ear-shattering, bone chilling scream. Frisk was alone, now. They looked it in the eye(s). If this was like a dog, they could play, pet. Surprisingly it…worked? It was on their lap, all 10 creatures in one crime against monster- and humankind. Drooling. But…when it was satisfied, and it left, Chara came crashing into their body. Thank _God!_ They were whole again.

“What the FUCK just happened?! Frisk, I’m so sorry, are you okay? What was that?”

They just shook their head and cried. But determination still coursed through their veins, red like blood. They had to keep going, but _please_ with Chara.

And there were more. Each new Amalgamate made them want to die, again, but this time never wake up. Chara left again. They were terrifyingly alone. But if these used to be monsters, they deserved kindness, no matter what. So with each hug Frisk offered to the melting, dripping, oozing creatures, Chara returned again. And they found more keys. And more entries. Oh, Alphys!

And then came the tapes. And a TV, and Frisk played them. And it was dark, but there were voices. Chara froze, all thoughts crashing to a standstill. Frisk tensed.

…Chara’s voice…?

“Chara, do your smile!”

…

…

_Azzy,_ came in Chara’s thoughts. Asriel. The dead prince. Toriel’s son. Asgore’s son. How old were these? 

And, then.

“Buttercups?”

Chara put a hand over their mouth in Frisk’s mind’s eye. Tears spilling over. They got Dad sick. Chara would eat them—?!

Poisonous. Memories flooded into Frisk’s mind, burning their throat, bile over blisters bursting in their mouth, spitting out blood. Coughing. Forcing more down their throat.

“Chara…I don’t like this plan anymore…”

Frisk threw up again. With it, they expected blood laced with half digested golden flower petals, Chara’s memories mixing and interlacing and tangling with theirs until they weren’t sure who was who anymore. But there was just ugly, smelly, bile. They’d made such a mess of this place.

Chara had…had…!

So they really were more alike than Frisk had thought. Of course, Frisk knew Chara had tripped/fallen/thrown themselves off the cliff and into the hole of the mountain. But…this felt so much _more_ intentional…

Falling down a hole could seem like an accident. It felt less final. They really could just tell (lie to) themselves that it was an accident. Disappearing sounded so much better than suicide. It was such an ugly word.

Buttercups, though…it was so much more thought out. Chara had to lie. Get an accomplice. Continue to do it, over multiple days, ignoring the pain and sadness of their family. “Frisk, I—! I did it to save the monsters! Azzy and I were supposed to be a team, use my SOUL to cross the barrier. But, he backed out! He didn’t want to kill the humans. I didn’t wither, but I was _brave!_ But he betrayed me, and…and…!”

Breathe. Breathebreathebreathebreathebreathe, Frisk reminded Chara, trying to break through their panicked thoughts spinning so fast it created a wall, almost like the blades of a spinning saw. One misstep and you’ll lose an arm.

Slowly, Frisk managed to break thought to Chara. _You’re okay,_ they reminded them. _I’m here. You’re not there anymore. You’re here. You’re safe._

On shaky knees, Frisk wobbled out of the room. They were so terrified all they wanted to do was curl up in that room, crying and rocking, but they wouldn’t for Chara’s sake. Chara couldn’t handle being there any longer, so Frisk would brave the dripping, looming, soul-crushing Amalgamates for Chara. And to save the creatures Alphys had created.

Frisk understood the secrets Alphys had to hide, now.

A sudden chill pierced their heart more painfully than one of Undyne’s spears. Another. Frisk stood, shaking in their boots. After their moment of respite, they’d lost their desensitivity to the creatures and so here they were, again, alone, without their defense. Worse, there came another. They’d never faced two before. Their eyes widened, tears springing to their eyes as a third came into view. A fourth. They shook their head, tense and backing away. Five. Tears streamed down their face.

No no no! Their back hit a wall and Frisk had nowhere to go as they saw the creatures from their worst nightmares inch closer and closer, hungry. They _really_ wanted Chara right now! Anybody! Toriel, Pap, Undyne, Sans, Alphys!

As if on cue, they heard the nervous monster’s voice and scuffling feet. She spoke to them with an air of familiarity and fond exasperation before noticing Frisk, trailing off as she took in their sorry state. She tried to shake that off as she explained about the creatures. Failed experiments. Determination. She would fit the definition of a mad scientist if she wasn’t so…sad. And when she’s mentioned her intention to do something…cowardly, Frisk felt a sad moment of solidarity and shared a small, sad smile with her. She paused for just a moment, looking at them, understand them with sympathy in her eyes before she continued on.

She thanked Frisk for their help and hurried out before she could get any more emotional.

Frisk was left, standing alone, tears still fresh on their face, panting, tense, hands still shaking violently, when Chara slammed back into their body. Relief flooded their veins and they collapsed to the floor, hugging their knees and leaning their head back against the wall. Slowly, more tears came out, less out of fear and more out of relief and from the horrors they’d seen and felt. Big, fat, hot tears rolled out of their eyes and down their face, dripping off their chin and into the collar of their sweater. Heaving sobs wracked their frame as they tried to control their crying but found they could not stop. (Although, they were silent, of _course_ they were.)

Their nose blocked up and they choked when they found they could not breathe. Heavy and thick mucus rolled down their throat, choking them even more as they started to cough. These they could not keep quiet as they rattled and made an ugly sound in their chest, but Frisk as sure Alphys was gone by now.

They cried until they could cry no longer, dehydrated and dry of tears. Chara had been strangely silent the whole time, still reeling from the tapes. Frisk forced their muscles to work at they struggled to push themselves up on weak knees. They suddenly felt so heavy, as though they suddenly weighed a ton instead of the mere 62 pounds they really did.

They stumbled, blindly reaching out as their vision faded in and out of black. Finally, they felt okay enough to walk. They inched out of the lab, now even more silent and empty than before. They begged Chara to come out to talk to them! At least so they could feel their presence as more than just a forgotten thought on their mind. Please!

There was no response for a minute before Chara slowly unfurled from their mental fetal position they’d curled into. They shuddered, and so did Frisk, as they became more like a warm (albeit tense and loose) hug in Frisk’s mental space instead of the screaming, cold “leave me alone” they’d been before.

It was all Chara could do, but it was enough. Frisk was okay with enough, for now. With a new (still small) spring in their step, they walked down the dark and creepy halls, no longer alone.

Looking at the elevator, they stepped in. Time to face Asgore again (for the 37th time, but this time it felt different. Final. They’d reach the surface, together this time.)


End file.
